Page 12 - FCW, September 30, 2016

Trending
Secret Service
preps new threat
database
In a privacy assessment released Aug. 29, the Department of Homeland Secu- rity said the Secret Service was retiring two legacy systems that were expen- sive to update and maintain.
The Protective Research Information Management System and the Counter Surveillance Unit Reporting Database are out, and the Protective Threat Man- agement System (PTMS) is in.
The news comes during an unusu- ally raucous election season, in which social media is proving to be a busy channel for threats explicit and implicit against the Secret Service’s protect- ees, which include the presidential candidates.
PTMS records personally identifiable information on “individuals expressing threatening or inappropriate behavior and on other incidents that may impact the Secret Service’s mission to protect persons, events and facilities.”
The system collects biographical information on subjects and informa- tion on how those records have been used by the Secret Service. It “relies heavily on information from other gov- ernment law enforcement databases and is generally not the original source of collection,” according to the privacy assessment.
DHS also noted that “due to the inherent risk of inaccurate informa- tion from publicly available sources, such as social media, there is a risk that the Secret Service will incorrectly identify individuals as the subjects of protective threat assessments.” There- fore, although the system is not sub- ject to Freedom of Information Act requests, the Secret Service will con- sider requests made through its FOIA officer to amend or correct information in the system.
— Adam Mazmanian
$39,177 is the government’s average per- employee IT spending, according to
IDC Government Insights
Editor’s Note: The next big list
The lists that fill this issue each year are always a fun read, but the enumera- tion that is by far my favorite won’t appear until next spring.
I’m referring, of course, to the Fed- eral 100 — FCW’s annual awards to honor outstanding individual efforts in the federal IT community.
That critical list of what’s good in federal IT, however, starts with you.
No matter how great an individual’s accomplishments
are, he or she can’t win with-
out being nominated. And
it’s never too soon to start thinking about who deserves the fed- eral IT community’s most prestigious recognition.
We’ll formally open the nomination process in late October, but start mak- ing a list and gathering the necessary information now. And please spread the word so that all the worthy women and men get the consideration they deserve.
Our judges weigh each nomination carefully, factoring in both the nomi-
nators and the stories they tell. Ulti- mately, though, it boils down to the nominee’s positive impact on federal IT, with special emphasis on these four elements:
• This is an individual award. Teams are important, too, but we’re looking for the women and men who power
that collaboration.
• Winners go above and beyond, whatever their level or rank. A fancy job title is not required, and doing one’s job well is not enough.
• Results matter. Exceptional effort is necessary but not suf-
ficient. There must be clear impact in the past 12 months.
• This is not just for agency employees. Anyone in federal IT — government, industry or otherwise — is eligible for a Fed 100.
Know some IT leaders who fit the bill? Then please make sure we know about them as well!
— Troy K. Schneider (tschneider@fcw.com / @troyschneider)
INK TANK
10 September 30, 2016 FCW.COM